I haven’t found a similar thread on here (maybe one was done long ago, but I don’t know), but I thought it’d be interesting to do a thread like this. We’ve all probably experienced this at some point in our lives: a performance in a film that we loathed and despised, yet critics and audiences ate it up like dogs and maybe the performance even garnered some awards attention. One such performance for me is Jason Statham in Spy. Now I liked Spy and most of the performers in it, but I could not stand Statham at all. I get he was parodying his famous action roles from the past, but he came across as so hammy, annoying, and over-the-top that I can’t believe Paul Feig, in the director’s chair, said “Cut! Great job Jason!” I don’t understand at all how people found his performance funny and how it got a Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Actor In A Comedy.

Another critically acclaimed performance I couldn’t stand was Bradley Cooper in American Hustle. In that, he too was hammy and over the top that it still makes me mad to this day that he got an Oscar nomination for that performance. He would have been better off being nominated for The Place Beyond The Pines, which is by far his greatest performance to date.

What about you? What are some critically acclaimed performances that leave you baffled or angry?

This one didn’t make me angry or anything, but I did feel he was miscast for the role, and that would be Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. I haven’t seen Tom Holland in the role, but I preferred Andrew Garfield’s performance in both The Amazing Spider-Man films.

Though one Oscar nominated performance I just did not get at all was Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!. For one, I couldn’t stand that film at all, I thought it was a migraine to sit through. As for Kidman, she was so over-the-top. What the fuck was the actors branch thinking when they nominated her?

Mahershala Ali in Moonlight. This is slightly unfair as there was nothing bad with his performance but sadly it’s probably the most overrated performance for years. In fact, it actually confuses me that people have labelled this phenomenal or incredible yet alone that he won an Oscar for it. The word subtlety will be thrown about but to me that’s just due to snob appeal. If Moonlight had been a bad film, no one would even have mentioned him- to me he simply became the chosen actor of many in a beloved film due to his career surge at the time.

Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl: she just kinda…existed. Her performance was so bland I was on the verge of falling asleep while watching her. It still baffles me as to how she was nominated to begin with when she did absolutely nothing special.

Okay, there are a lot of performances that get nominated for/win awards that I don’t GET. You know like when you hear great things about someone then finally see their film and think Wait.. this is what everybody’s talking about?? What did they even do?! But I may still enjoy them and not necessarily think they’re bad, just not too nonexistent or incomplete for raves and awards.

So if we’re talking about acclaimed performances that I DESPISE, then the only ones that really come to mind are Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky and Michelle Williams in Take This Waltz. Now, I’m not someone who sees a performance and won’t like it just because the character is unlikeable or unrelatable. I’m able to separate the character from the performance but I’m sorry I just hate these two. I both don’t understand the characters or think they were all that challenging to play.

Poppy was just annoying af like constantly joking and laughing about nothing. Kind of like (not to sound mean) Robin Williams who (not to sound mean) I never cared for. I always thought he was so irritating and always acted like he was onstage like okay no can we have a conversation for one second without you manically commenting on everything around you for laughs. That’s what Poppy reminded me of. There’s a difference between being happy-go-lucky and probably needing some kind of medication to just chill tf out. Easygoing, carefree, lighthearted does not equal 24 hour commentary on every word and action someone says to take and turn into a childish joke for yourself and nobody else to laugh at.

And Margot just tries to be all cute and unique by being pushed in wheelchairs or blowing on people’s faces or speaking like a baby like OMG SHE’S SO QUIRKY. But no she was all over the place insane. Pretending to be this conflicted eccentric girl with vague sadness but there was no depth. Looking pensively into the camera does not equal depth. She just treated both guys poorly and then felt sorry for herself all the time. At least try to express yourself? Also if I had someone who made me chicken every single day, I would never leave them. Lol I don’t know I just couldn’t see the appeal of either character/performance whatever.

I nevee understood the sweep that Helen Mirren did for The Queen. She whispered and gave silent expressions. Matthew McConaughey took the typical way of gaining an Oscar and critics should be ashamed for allowing him to get all of that undeserved acclaim and attention.

Another performance I forgot: Kevin Hart in The Secret Life Of Pets. Critics hailed him as the funniest thing in the movie; he annoyed the living hell out of me. Snowball was such an annoying rabbit he deserved to be boiled in a pot of water by Alex Forrest from Fatal Attraction.

Oh so many I can hardly count:
Amy Adams–Doubt, The Fighter and American Hustle (I did love her in Junebug though, and while I don’t think she was great in The Master, I didn’t mind her in the role either)
Joaquin Phoenix–Her
Jessica Chastain–Zero Dark Thirty
Ben Affleck– …well everything, but primarily Argo
Matt Damon–The Martian (ugh–why?)
Sandra Bullock–The Blind Side (couldn’t people just have waited till Gravity? She was fucking awesome in that)
Alicia Vikander–The Danish Girl (completely agree with poster above)
Eddie Redmayne–The Danish Girl (just..nope)
Rosamund Pike–Gone Girl (I know I’ll get hate for this)
Tom Hanks–Sully (critics were reaching here, and i LOVE Hanks. Okay I don’t despise this performance, I just thought it was very ordinary)
Meryl Streep–Into the Woods, Florence Foster Jenkins (again, I rarely despise Streep but they were massively overrated performances)

I still have no idea what people saw in Quvenzhané Wallis’s performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild, sounded to me like she could barely read a line but I guess bar-lowering for Best Actress is okay when it’s kiddies?

Still not sure why Johnny Depp was nominated for Sweeney Todd and not James McAvoy that year. Or why Jonah Hill for The Wolf of Wall Street was nominated ahead of Daniel Bruhl or John Hawkes. And on that level, nope, didn’t care at all when Leo lost to Matthew. TWOWS was a hot mess.

When Alicia Vikander and Mark Rylance both won I thought both cards had to be wrong. Did not see the acclaim behind either of these roles. They played the parts well but Oscar-winning? Really?

Oh and since I can’t think of any more off the top of my head here comes my daily rag on Ryan Gosling for getting nominated for La La Land for not really doing anything.

Oh I forgot Sean Penn in fucking Mystic River. I’m indifferent about his performance in Milk and his win as a whole, but I can’t STAND the acclaim for him in the former. Yes, I get why people would say that his “Is my daughter in there” would be raw because many parents would react that way, especially with the way she was killed. But Jesus fucking Christ, that wasn’t even one of his best! He did SO MUCH better in 21 Grams and should’ve won for that, actually (well maybe not with Benicio Del Toro in the mix).

Fuck Christoph Waltz for winning for Django Unchained when it should’ve been Philip Seymour Hoffman. Shame on that lazy voting. Shame on critics for saying he was the standout when he wasn’t even the best supporting actor in the fucking movie.